House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is the sort of book that people tend to either hate or love. The text is infuriatingly complicated, even though its message and storyline are quite simple. Major reviews of the book swing from commentary on Danielewski’s genius to criticism regarding the convoluted nature of the typography.

The main reason for this is its strange narrative style. It flips between two stories by means of footnotes; that of Johnny Truant, an aptly-named disjointed youth who works at a tattoo parlor in Hollywood, and the story of a Pulitzer-prize winning photographer named Navidson. They are connected by a mysterious man called Zampano, a character who is, for the entirety of the novel, dead.

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There has been a lot of talk lately about 'Steampunk 'sub-culture' and to be quite honest, I don't really know what Steampunk sub-culture will turn out to be. I do hope that at its core will be people getting together and making things.

I also hope that it turns out to be a positive sub-culture, since one that brings people together for the sake of creating is more resistant to co-opting by commercial interest and ultimately more deeply subversive to the mainstream.

Charles de Lint has written sixty-seven books to date, he is nothing if not prolific.  Ranging from collections of short-stories to full novels, almost all of them have helped to pioneer a growing area of fiction known as ‘urban fantasy.’  Like any genre, it’s a bit difficult to define, as every writer brings their own interpretation to it.  Imagine, if you will, the dragons, fairies, and elves of high fantasy.  Now put them in the nearest modern city and you'll have a fairly good approximation.

De Lint’s city of choice in about half of his books is Newford, a fictional North American town. Here a whole cast of characters reside each with their own past and problems. If you’ve ever read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, you’ll understand how this works. While there is a chronological sequence of events, there isn’t a first book to start with or a last one with which to end.  After much fretting, I've decided to begin with the Onion Girl.

After the amazing success of Tachyon Publication's special offer for Ann & Jeff VanderMeer's Steampunk (well over 100 books sold!) its become clear to me that one of the things our readers greatly enjoy is, well, reading.

Thus it is with real pleasure that I introduce a new feature here at The Steampunk Workshop; book reviews!  The books you will find discussed here will not be exclusively Steampunk books, though there will certainly be some of those, but books that are known and loved by our contributors.

Our first selection and review is brought to you by the Lady Almira, a young Special Weapons Officer currently serving aboad the H.M.S. Chronabelle and someone whom I had the great honour of being introduced to at this past weekend's Maker Faire.  After meeting several members of this crew I realized that I and my fellows are merely proto-SteamPunks and that the crew of the Chronabelle and their ilk are actually the first generation, and to that I say: "Huzzah!"